Various ice maker designs have been proposed for refrigeration appliances such as commercial or home refrigerators and/or freezers. In certain compact refrigeration appliances, space is at a premium within the refrigeration cabinet. Accordingly, traditional ice makers where a plurality of ice cubes are made simultaneously within a number of ice cube molds and then harvested to an ice bucket may not be suitable for such compact devices.
One type of ice maker suggested for compact refrigeration appliances is known as an auger style ice maker. In such ice makers, a single ice cube is made at a time in an ice cube mold. An auger extends upward from within the ice cube mold with a distal end above the mold. Rotation of the auger lifts the ice cube up out of the mold toward the distal end. The motor or other gearing for driving the auger are connected to the distal end of the auger, with some sort of interconnection through the base of the mold. U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,121, 6,470,701 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,873 all disclose such compact auger style ice makers.
Due to the connection of the motor drive through the base of the mold, a seal must be present at the base to prevent leakage of water down through the mold. However, in such an environment where water is repeatedly frozen into ice, the ice cube is removed mechanically via rotation, and then water refills the mold, leakage of water from the mold at the seal interface is possible. That water will then likely travel further into the refrigeration appliance, either onto the motor and/or gears or beyond. The water may pool in a refrigerated location or may freeze if in a cold enough location. Accordingly, an improved auger type ice maker that avoids leakage issues as described above would be welcome.